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Turbine nameplate capacity, hub height and rotor diameter have all increased significantly over the past 15 years, and since 2000, the average nameplate capacity has more than doubled. As a result, many lower wind regions previously thought non-viable are now experiencing healthy wind project development and operations.
Despite the many positives of the technological advancements, every design change to a turbine, even an evolutionary one, creates some level of risk in either the design or, possibly, the supply chain.

Despite the many positives of the technological advancements, every design change to a turbine, even an evolutionary one, creates some level of risk in either the design or, possibly, the supply chain...

It is fair to expect that the energy output of an operating wind farm should be close to what it was designed to produce. If the wind conditions for a particular site are well-measured and the selected turbine is a well-known model, then logic would conclude that the energy prediction process is fairly straightforward. But is this an oversimplification? Industry experience has shown that it is, since the majority of operating wind farms don’t meet their predicted P50 energy values in an average year.

Properly diagnosing and correcting performance issues may be fraught with unnecessary uncertainty, lost revenues and higher costs.

Wind resource assessment and project finance are rarely discussed together in conversation. one topic is traditionally the domain of technology wonks while the other belongs to the deal makers. Everyone knows that windier sites give higher revenues, but what is largely under-appreciated is the role that resource assessment practices can play in the capital structure of wind projects.

By completing a cost-of-energy optimization, consideration is given to a potential site's wind resource, as well as the economic benefits of siting turbines in areas that minimize costly construction issues. The next generation of wind project layout development requires an understanding of estimated construction costs and trade-offs with production potential to develop the most valuable wind project.

Electricity prices are expected to rise across the Northeast this winter due to spikes in the price of natural gas. AWS Truepower examined offshore wind production estimates based on historic climatic data for several proposed offshore wind projects in the Northeast during the winter of 2013‐2014. Our study confirmed that offshore wind energy can help mitigate the anticipated price spikes.

The issue of wind farm underperformance continues to be scrutinized. AWS Truepower states that Fitch Ratings misses the mark in a report claiming that US wind farm underperformance is primarily due to overestimation of wind conditions.

AWS Truepower will be helping to analyze wind speed data being collected by Deepwater Wind, a Rhode Island-based company that is studying a potential 210-megawatt wind farm — the equivalent of about half of a traditional fossil-fuel power plant — in the ocean off Montauk at the eastern tip of Long Island.

There are currently 14 U.S. offshore wind projects in advanced development, and the country has sufficient resources to support at least 54 GW of offshore wind capacity, according to new reports released by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Delving into data collected from an operator's turbines can lead to a series of tweaks to technology and operation and maintenance that boost the output of a wind farm or even an entire asset portfolio.This article discusses what occurred when Australian developer, Infigen Energy, brought in AWS Truepower to perform an operational energy assessment.

AWS Truepower is working to enable the California power system operator to incorporate distributed solar directly into power system operations. This project will reduce the uncertainty of solar power production and hence the costs of bulk power system integration of solar generation.

Research and Development Partnership developed to gather deepwater hub-height wind and other metocean measurements in the Gulf of Maine. A press event was held to unveil its latest technology, a buoy-based floating LIDAR system

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The University of Maine’s (UMaine) Advanced Structures and Composites Center, NRG Systems Inc., AWS Truepower LLC, UMaine’s Physical Oceanography Group and Leosphere SAS have established a research and development partnership to gather deepwater hub-height wind measurements in the Gulf of Maine

Using wind for use in its current location is great, but the industry needs to become better at moving the wind from farm to market. We need a way to move the surplus of this abundant commodity from where it’s produced to where it’s needed.

AWS Truepower identified locations and sensor types required to improve short-term and extreme-event forecasts. The team used a proprietary sensitivity analysis to identify specific locations and variables.

AWS Truepower was featured in a PBS special titled, America Revealed: Electric Nation; a tour around the country to understand its intricacies, its vulnerabilities, and the remarkable ingenuity required to keep the electricity on every day of the year. A key focus on the challenges and opportunities we face now and in the days ahead to keep the power flowing.